The present invention relates to a device for detaching an injection needle from a syringe. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device for detaching a used needle from a syringe with safety without touching the needle with finger.
There are two kinds of injection needles with respect to the manner of attaching the needle to a syringe. The one is a slip type wherein a needle has a hub with a plain inner surface and the hub is simply forced to be put on the nozzle portion of a syringe that has a plain outer surface. The other is a screw type wherein a needle has a hub having a female thread on the inner surface thereof and the hub is threaded onto the nozzle portion of a syringe that has a male thread on the outer surface thereof.
Conventionally, the injection needle was detached from the syringe by simply pulling out it or by unthreading it with holding the hub thereof with fingers. At the first glance, such detaching operation appears to be easy. However, an accident that finger is injured with the needle inevitably happens when the same person repeats the needle-detaching operation several tens times or more a day.
Recently diseases infectious through blood such as viral hepatitis and acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) have increased rapidly. For the reason, it is important that persons who are engaged in test for the diseases and treatment of the diseases get out of direct touch with the blood of patients.
However, when a used needle is detached from a syringe in the conventional manner, there is a great possibility that a person gets hurt in the finger with the needle and the blood attached to the needle is entered into the body of the person through the wound so that the person is infected with the above-mentioned disease.
Accordingly, there is a demand for a means of detaching the needle from the syringe without touching the needle with finger.
With respect to a blood-drawing needle which generally has two needles extending in the opposed directions from the hub, a needle disposal system including a disposable bottle having a cap in compliance with the demand is proposed, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,466,538. The cap is provided with a slot which has a large width at one end and is narrowed toward the other end and one side of the slot in the narrow portion is contoured to define a serrated edge. The blood-drawing needle attached to a syringe is inserted into the wide portion of the slot and then moved toward the narrow portion, thereby catching the hub of the needle between both the side walls of the narrow portion. When the syringe is turned in such a state, the engagement between the syringe and the needle is loosened, so that the needle falls into the bottle.
However, the needle disposable system has a drawback that since the hub of the needle is firmly caught between the side walls of the slot when the syringe is turned, the needle tends to remain in that position without falling into the bottle and the operator gets hurt in the finger with the needle when he touches the needle to remove the caught needle.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a needle-detaching device capable of detaching a used needle from a syringe with an easy operation without touching the needle with finger.
Another object of the invention is to provide a needle-detaching device having both a needle-detaching function for a slip type needle and a needle-detaching function for a screw type needle.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the description hereinafter.